Levels of Learning

The BEGINNING language learner
Beginning language learners do a lot of listening; just like babies listen to their native language for months before they begin saying words. The process works more quickly with children and youth, of course, but understanding language still precedes speaking it.

Beginning language learners will learn some key phrases (greetings, asking how someone is feeling, politely asking for things, such as food at the table or money at the bank).

They also learn single words and short phrases, often related to a particular activity (folk dance, baking) or area of the Village (cafe, cabin) or theme (a city or region of a country where the language is spoken, describing themselves). And they learn songs and chants!

While beginning learners can participate in a conversation, the other speaker does most of the speaking, and the beginning learner will respond with single words and short phrases.

Beginning learners participate in presentations with phrases they have memorized. Overall, parents will likely find that their beginning language learners will understand the language used daily within the Village. They will be able to respond to questions or cues that were used in various places like the dining hall or store. They are not ready to start a conversation yet or respond to “How do you say…” questions from family and friends.

The INTERMEDIATE language learner
“Intermediate” is a wide range, with several phases of development, and a villager is likely to be an intermediate language learner for a number of summers, as he/she advances through the various stages of the “middle years.”

Intermediate language learners increase their ability to understand or interpret the language they are hearing. They increase their listening skills from understanding language that is accompanied by lots of pictures, gestures, actions, to understanding language without visual support. This is a gradual process.

Intermediate learners are able to carry on longer conversations. They move from understanding familiar questions and replying with short and often memorized phrases to understanding both familiar and unexpected questions and to providing longer responses, asking questions to keep the discussion going, and being more creative with language.

These villagers can present language to an audience in an increasingly sophisticated way. They move from short phrases to longer phrases and sentences. Ultimately they are able to tell a story and describe something they did or something that happened. They move from using memorized language to being able to put their own thoughts into words and sentences and stories.

The ADVANCED language learner
Villagers who speak the language of the Village quite fluently, whether they come from speaking the language at home, an immersion school, or living abroad, and villagers who have had several language learning experiences (Villages, school, travel) can develop, expand, and refine their language skills in the Village.

Often advanced learners expand their language skills “sideways,” increasing the number of topics they can discuss with ease, and “in depth” rather than “forward.” They make strides in sophistication of expression, add vocabulary choices and become more precise in their conversation. They polish and refine the skills they have, become increasingly accurate, and use language more and more as a native speaker would. This is similar to the way in which high school students (or college students or graduate students) continue to develop and refine their first or native language, as compared to primary school students.

These villagers use language in more intellectually challenging ways, such as persuading someone or developing an argument. (Beginning language learners may have these skills in English - or their native language - but they don’t have the linguistic skills in the new language.)

They gain skills through the opportunity to interact with native speakers of the language from a variety of regions or countries. Advanced learners often reinforce their own skills and make them stronger through assisting other villagers. (This can happen with intermediate learners, too.) For those villagers coming from an immersion school, they can gain social, non-academic language that may be less emphasized in their school setting.

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